Do you feel like everything around you is about COVID-19?

I turn on the news, it's non-stop COVID-19. 

I check my Facebook feed, it's all COVID-19. 

My LinkedIn, same story. My Twitter, likewise. Google, also. 

COVID-19, COVID-19, COVID-19...

But what's worse is that COVID-19 has overtaken my inbox - I've received dozens or more emails from companies, including a bunch of irrelevant and dry press releases on how they're tackling the crisis. 

It's a huge crisis, I won't deny it. But the more it's being talked about, the more people are getting tired of it - I've discussed this with quite a few colleagues and friends and they all agree. 

Especially, when businesses are not properly planning their messages and who they reach with them.

If I'm a customer of yours and you have something important to communicate and by important I mean something that affects me, by all means, do communicate with me.

But just to blast me things that simply fill my inbox and my brain with COVID-19, this is interruptive and irrelevant. 

We've spoken a lot about push vs. pull with the Inbound PR concept and I can't think of a better time when it applies more. 

People are tired of messages that do not relate to them, that just add to the noise. 

More than ever businesses need to be mindful of spamming because all these messages that I've been receiving are just that - spam that I ignore. 

I know you care as we all do and we appreciate it but this doesn't give you a reason to just blast things out. And not to mention the amount of fake news that's out there with this crisis. People are getting more and more panicked and that's only leading to negative outcomes. 

The Inbound PR Principles

As a business, I urge you to follow the principles of Inbound PR: 

• Do not spam. 
• Do not push messages to everybody, just to those that these messages will be relevant to.
• Do not do something just because so many others are doing it. 

Rather: 

• Pull people in with relevant, helpful content where people want to consume it. 
• Target your lists and who you want to reach as well as how. 
• Add meaningful value when and where it's needed. 

Especially in the time of crisis, businesses need to be mindful of what people are going through and put themselves in their shoes instead of just thinking about themselves. 

That's what inbound is about - them, not you.